J. F. Campbell Collection > Koran: or, Alcoran of Mohammed

OHAF. XVIII. AL K0RAI7. 239
And they said the one to the other, Wlien ye sliall separate yourselves from
them, and /rom Mtfi^ej^tes which they worship, except 000,"^ fly into the
cave : your Lord will pour his mercy on you abundantly, and will dispose
your business for you to advantage. And thou mightest have seen the
sun, when it had risen, to decline from their cave towards the right hnnd ;
and when it went down, to leave them on the left hand;' and they were in
the spacious part of the cave.^ This was one of the signs of God. Whom-
soever God shall direct, he shall be rightly directed : and wliorasoever he
shall cause to err, thou shalt not find any to defend or to direct. And
thou wouldest have judged them to have been awake," while they were
sleeping ; and we caused them to turn themselves to the right hand, and to
the left.° And their dog^ stretched forth his fore-legs in the month of the
cave: if thou hadst come suddenly upon them, verily thou wouldest have
turned thy back and fled from them, and thou wouldest have been filled
with fear at the sight of them.*^ And so we waked them from their sleep,
that they miglit ask questions of one another. One of them spake and
said, How long have ye tarried here! They answered, "We have tarried a
day, or part of a day. The others said, Your Lord best knoweth the time
ye have tarried Z and now send one of you with this your money into the
as they give unto us no eminent proofs of their power. What can be more impious
than to attribute falsehood to God?" — Savary.
^ For they, like other idolaters, worshipped the true God and idols also.*
' Lest it should be offensive to them, the cave opening towards the south.*
™ {. e. In the midst of it, where they were incommoded neither by the heat of the
sun nor the closeness of the cavc.^
° Because of their having their eyes open, or their frequent turning themselves
from one side to the other.^
• Lest their lying so long on the ground should consume their flesh.*
P This dog had followed them as they passed by him when they fled to the cave,
and they drove him away; whereupon God caused him to speak, and he said, I lovb
those ivho are dear unto God; go to sleep, therefore, and I will guard you. But some
say it was a dog belonging to a shepherd who followed them, and that the dog
followed the shepherd ; which opinion is supported by reading, as some do, cale-
bohom, their dog's master, instead of calbohora, their dog.' Jallalo'ddin adds, that
the dog behaved himself as his masters did, in turning himself, in sleeping, and in
waking.
The Mohammedans have a great respect for this dog, and allow him a place in
paradise with some other favourite brutes ; and they have a sort of proverb which
they use in speaking of a covetous person, that he would not throw a bone to the dog
of the seven sleepers: nay it is said that they have the superstition to write his name,
which they suppose to be Katmir, (though some, as is observed above, think he was
called al Rakim,)on their letters which go far, or which pass the sea, as a protection,
or kind of talisman, to preserve them from miscarriage. ^
1 For that God had given them terrible countenances; or else because of the
largeness of their bodies, or the horror of the place.
It is related that the Khalif Moawiyah, in an expedition he made against Natolia
passed by the cave of the seven sleepers, and would needs send somebody into it,
notwithstanding Ebn Abbas remonstrated to him the danger of it, saying. That a
better man than him (meaning tb-e prophet) had been forbidden to enter it, and re-
peated this verse; but the men the Khalif sent in had no sooner entered the cave,
than they were struck dead by a burning wind.^
' As they entered the cave in the morning, and waked about noon, they at first
imagined they had slept half a day, or a day and a half at most; but when they
found their nails and hair grown very long, they used these words.'
* Al Beidawi. « Idem. « Idem. ^ it^gm. « Idem, Jallalo'ddin. » lidem.
1 La Roque, Voy. de I'Arabie Hear. p. 74. Vide D'Hcrbel. ubi sup. ' Al Bti-
dawi. s Idem.